SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 123 - Stalker

Hhmm. I love Spaceman 3. I've not seen any Tarkovsky films, maybe I should check them out.

Have you read "Playing Bass with 3 Left Hands" by Will Carruthers (the bass player in Spaceman 3)? He has a very funny story about recording Dreamweapon.

I have been meaning to pick that up at some point, recorded in an arthouse cinema lobby wasn't it? both I think benefit from having a long attension span and are experienced in a rather trance like way, probably best late at night.
 
I have been meaning to pick that up at some point, recorded in an arthouse cinema lobby wasn't it? both I think benefit from having a long attension span and are experienced in a rather trance like way, probably best late at night.

Yeah that's right, at an event called "an evening of contemporary sitar". The whole book is hilarious, you should defo pick it up as a Spaceman fan.
 
Yeah that's right, at an event called "an evening of contemporary sitar". The whole book is hilarious, you should defo pick it up as a Spaceman fan.

Probably best coming from more of a third person rather than Jason or Sonic I spose.
 
Personally, I'd say its in contention for most beautiful film of all time. I mean, they painted the freaking trees and the leafs to get just the kind of atmosphere Tarkovsky wanted.
From the descriptions of eyewitnesses the filming must have been brutal for the participants. Not to mention they had to re-shoot the whole damn thing, except for this dream scene I think, which was filmed by the original camera guy and somehow recovered.


Not to mention all the people that perished from cancer after they had to move the set to Estonia.

I think the most obvious and concrete theme in it is Nuclear Fallout. The film feels very Chernobyl but was filmed pre-Chernobyl, inspired by a similar meltdown in Estonia that created a "forbidden zone" of radioactive activity.

We have...
1) a forbidden Zone
2) a power-plant that Stalker walks by with his family, dominating the scenery.
3) children born with deficiancies by people who spend a lot of time in the Zone (radioactive poisoning)
4) Stalker's hair is partly discolored (the blonde patch). And he seems in bad health, coughing then and then. More signs of radiation poisoning?
5) I've read that the Soviets used to use sand to contain meltdowns (like you usually use water). Hence the scene with the dunes in the Zone. I've never been able to confirm that though, so it might just be bullshit.
It definitely feels that way. And the first twenty minutes looks like a cold war inspired escape from totalitarian oppression.

But the magical element leads me to believe it is meant to be something more ethereal than that. Tarkovsky said once he believed the Zone was a product of the Stalker's imagination. He even considered an alternate ending revealing this. Everything that happened came from his mind, which would explain things like the voice commanding Writer to stop before entering the building. I wonder if every trap they "avoided" simply didn't exist as long as Stalker didn't imagine it? We know he passed telekinesis on to his daughter.

On the other hand, it would make sense that the telephone came from Professor's imagination. Having reached the Room, I'm sure he wanted boast to his adversary. Voila, here's a phone, compliments of the Zone!

On that adversary, I wonder if it is the same Professor mentioned in the opening scroll? Or if Professor is that guy?
"...What was it? Did a meteor fall down? Was it a visit by citizens of the vast space? So or otherwise in our little country appeared the greatest miracle of miracles – the ZONE. We sent there the troops immediately. They did not come back. Then we surrounded the ZONE with police cordons... And, I suppose, that was the right thing to do... Actually, I don’t know, I don’t know... From an interview with Professor Wallace, the receiver of Nobel’s prize, by a journalist of RAI."


Everything (especially man-made) is helpless against time, is finite.
Time was a major theme. The first line of dialogue in the movie was his wife saying "why did you take my watch?". She then goes on to say how he has grown old and he has stolen her best years from her.



I think its used especially well when they are riding into the Zone. You hear the repeated clanking of some cog. It goes on repeatedly, lulling you into some trance as you watch their faces from behind. And then BAM! Jump-cut into the Zone and color-vision! Excellent jump-cut to set up the Zone!

Taking people into the Zone is then more of a religious mission. Stalker is in awe of what the Zone is and can give. All that he wants to do is impart some of its holiness on other people. The conflict of the film between him and Writer/Proffessor is played like a crisis of fate, with others not thinking that human minds are pure enough to take what the Zone is offering them, since mankind is inherently base and sinful (and unknowlagable of its excact self) so the results would only be more evil. Stalker is spiritually destroyed by this, almost appearing as if at the stage of dying. But Stalker did manage to impart some of the Zone on another person. He just didn't notice it. Because it was his daughter.

Several conversations implied he might have been "chosen by God". Stalker said this:
"And that day two ... of them... ...went to a village about sixty stadia away ... and talking together about all these events, and when they were talking and discussing it together ... and He came up to them, went with them, but their eyes were held, so that they did not recognize Him. He asked though, what they were (sighs) all the time talking together about and why they were so sad. One of them, called..."
While Writer and Professor looked at him with kind of a reverent gaze:
15393_4.jpg


And this voice in the dream sequence (which was his wife speaking):
"WIFE: And there an immense earthquake took place, and the Sun became dark as sack cloth, and the Moon was like covered with blood... (Stalker with closed eyes (sepia).) ...And the stars of the heaven fell to the ground as if a fig-tree, shaken by a great wind, let its unripe figs fall down. And the sky hid itself, rolled up as a scroll; and various hills and isles moved from their places (laughs)... And the kings on earth, and the dignitaries, and the rich, and leaders of the thousands, and the powerful, and all the free hid themselves in the caves and mountain-gorges and they told the mountains and the rocks: fall on us and hide us from the face of the One sitting on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come, and who can withstand it? (Laughter.) "

Simultaniously. The Zone is also a condouit of the mind. Stalker tells them that the Zone reacts and changed depending on whose observing it. The deeper they travel into the Zone, the deeper they approach the question of their innermost selves, the question of what men really desire. That's one of the things I really like about this movie. The physical journey mirrors the cognitive one.
Exactly. Stalker believes only the truly unhappy can make it through, which probably means the mind creates everything they are experiencing, and ultimately determines the outcome if they enter the Room.

In the final scene it seems like maybe Stalker has never seen anyone actually make it through and go inside.
"And nobody believes. Not only those two. Nobody! Whom should I lead in there? Oh, God... And the most terrifying thing is ... that nobody needs it anymore. And nobody needs that Room. And all my efforts are worthless!"
 
Quick question - Was this really a SciFi film? And if so, how? Part of why I was disappointed is I wanted to see some good old fashioned late 70s Russian SciFi. Whatever that actually may be. Which is why I was curious and excited, until old boy actually made it out of bed! And then hung out in a bar. And then walked a long time. And then rode a trolley a long time. And then crawled over some sand boobs. And then crawled into caves...etc

To me this was more post-nuclear annihilation ponderous, somewhat elegant, bleak....
I would have a hard time classifying it as sci-fi, personally. It's more like a psychological drama or something. All the "magic" they talked about existing in the Zone was never actually seen. We had to take it all on faith based on Stalker's eye witness accounts. The best evidence of something paranormal was the telephone. And the scene with the bird strangely disappearing:


That is until the ending, which makes you rethink everything you watched and believe all the magical elements existed. Plus, it had a scientist and a fiction writer. What's more sci-fi than that!
 
I would have a hard time classifying it as sci-fi, personally. It's more like a psychological drama or something. All the "magic" they talked about existing in the Zone was never actually seen. We had to take it all on faith based on Stalker's eye witness accounts. The best evidence of something paranormal was the telephone. And the scene with the bird strangely disappearing:


That is until the ending, which makes you rethink everything you watched and believe all the magical elements existed. Plus, it had a scientist and a fiction writer. What's more sci-fi than that!


We deliberately don't get any kind of scientific explantion of course but still the concept itself I think falls broadly within that realm and it is obviously treated with a good deal of depth. Besides the bird(I maybe an influence on the Matrix's repeated cat?) you also have those glowing coals by the side of the river and whatever it is that briefly falls across the doorway as Writer desides to make his own way earlier on.
 
But the magical element leads me to believe it is meant to be something more ethereal than that. Tarkovsky said once he believed the Zone was a product of the Stalker's imagination. He even considered an alternate ending revealing this. Everything that happened came from his mind, which would explain things like the voice commanding Writer to stop before entering the building. I wonder if every trap they "avoided" simply didn't exist as long as Stalker didn't imagine it? We know he passed telekinesis on to his daughter.

On the other hand, it would make sense that the telephone came from Professor's imagination. Having reached the Room, I'm sure he wanted boast to his adversary. Voila, here's a phone, compliments of the Zone!

We do see the Stalker mention that the zone "wakes up" when people enter it so the idea it was being built partly by the minds of those entraining it could be said it still be hinted at.

I have always wondered at the significance of the nuts, I remember on an old copy I had were the image quality was poor I actually thought they were organic nuts as some kind of natural symbol/ward but mechanical nuts seems almost the opposite, as a symbol of technology the zone is antagonist towards so it would set off a trap perhaps?

On that adversary, I wonder if it is the same Professor mentioned in the opening scroll? Or if Professor is that guy?
"...What was it? Did a meteor fall down? Was it a visit by citizens of the vast space? So or otherwise in our little country appeared the greatest miracle of miracles – the ZONE. We sent there the troops immediately. They did not come back. Then we surrounded the ZONE with police cordons... And, I suppose, that was the right thing to do... Actually, I don’t know, I don’t know... From an interview with Professor Wallace, the receiver of Nobel’s prize, by a journalist of RAI."

As with Solaris though its notable that whilst generally characters seem more Russian you have a western name in Professor Wallace hitting that the cold war isn't still in operation. Whether the professor in the film is the one giving this quite I'v never been sure but I think your likely ment to relate the two, perhaps this quote comes from him after the events of the film?

Several conversations implied he might have been "chosen by God". Stalker said this:
"And that day two ... of them... ...went to a village about sixty stadia away ... and talking together about all these events, and when they were talking and discussing it together ... and He came up to them, went with them, but their eyes were held, so that they did not recognize Him. He asked though, what they were (sighs) all the time talking together about and why they were so sad. One of them, called..."
While Writer and Professor looked at him with kind of a reverent gaze:
15393_4.jpg

The Stalker himself always gives me the feeling of a mystic or shamen leading people on a spiritual quest.

I think his most interesting philosophy is the talk about strength and rigidity as a symbol of death and weakness and flexability as a sign of life. You could relate it to people becoming less open minded as they age but perhaps also relating back to his religious nature? To me the talk of strength and rigidity feels more like a masculine force to control the world where as weakness and flexability feels more like a feminine force to live within it, the first arguably relating more to modern religions like Christianity in which the world is created to man and the second more to older Pagan religions with there earth goddesses looking to have humans live within the world.

I do find it interesting that Tarkovsky's films tended to have mostly male major roles besides Hari in Solaris yet his lead characters are IMHO all you could argue who are not very masculine.
And this voice in the dream sequence (which was his wife speaking):
"WIFE: And there an immense earthquake took place, and the Sun became dark as sack cloth, and the Moon was like covered with blood... (Stalker with closed eyes (sepia).) ...And the stars of the heaven fell to the ground as if a fig-tree, shaken by a great wind, let its unripe figs fall down. And the sky hid itself, rolled up as a scroll; and various hills and isles moved from their places (laughs)... And the kings on earth, and the dignitaries, and the rich, and leaders of the thousands, and the powerful, and all the free hid themselves in the caves and mountain-gorges and they told the mountains and the rocks: fall on us and hide us from the face of the One sitting on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come, and who can withstand it? (Laughter.) ""

"How about a little music?"
 
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maybe an influence on the Matrix's repeated cat?
Aahhhh, good one. A little Deja Vu. Maybe the theme of Time popping up again.

I have always wondered at the significance of the nuts, I remember on an old copy I had were the image quality was poor I actually thought they were organic nuts as some kind of natural symbol/ward but mechanical nuts seems almost the opposite, as a symbol of technology the zone is antagonist towards so it would set off a trap perhaps?
That's one of the things about the movie I was referring to when I said it doesn't often bother to explain itself. Hey, we gotta chuck these nuts with gauze attached ahead of us before we walk anywhere or we'll run into a trap. Obviously!

Your explanation is as good as any. Certainly the sepia reality exists in a mechanical world, and the Zone likes to swallow man made contraptions into its oily, watery bowels. I noticed the Stalker pushed the Writer's pistol gently into the water. Also, the only threats to the Zone seemed to be human technology, like the Professor's bomb.

The Stalker himself always gives me the feeling of a mystic or shamen leading people on a spiritual quest.

I think his most interesting philosophy is the talk about strength and rigidity as a symbol of death and weakness and flexability as a sign of life. You could relate it to people becoming less open minded as they age but perhaps also relating back to his religious nature? To me the talk of strength and rigidity feels more like a masculine force to control the world where as weakness and flexability feels more like a feminine force to live within it, the first arguably relating more to modern religions like Christianity in which the world is created to man and the second more to older Pagan religions with there earth goddesses looking to have humans live within the world.

I do find it interesting that Tarkovsky's films tended to have mostly male major roles besides Hari in Solaris yet his lead characters are IMHO all you could argue who are not very masculine.
I think it also touches on Buddhism. One of the four noble truths is that desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering.
The Stalker talks about this concept here:
"Let it come true what has been planned. Let they believe. And let they laugh at their passions; for what they call a passion is only a friction between the soul and the outer world. And above all, let they believe in themselves and become helpless as children, because weakness is great and strength is worthless..."
 
Your explanation is as good as any. Certainly the sepia reality exists in a mechanical world, and the Zone likes to swallow man made contraptions into its oily, watery bowels. I noticed the Stalker pushed the Writer's pistol gently into the water. Also, the only threats to the Zone seemed to be human technology, like the Professor's bomb.

That certainly gives the impression as Water being a strong representation of the substance of the Zone itself swallowing and neutralising human influence, in the long tracking shot you have under the water the thing I can recognise...

Syringe - Medical Advancements? Drugs?
Silver Tray - General Privilege?
Photograph/painting of some trees - Art?
Bowl of fish - Humans using animals?
Religious Icon & Money - Religion and the State? large scale religion?
Gun - War or Violence?
Clock - Time or measurement of it? science generally?
Ticket - Reference to Cinema itself?
I think it also touches on Buddhism. One of the four noble truths is that desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering.
The Stalker talks about this concept here:
"Let it come true what has been planned. Let they believe. And let they laugh at their passions; for what they call a passion is only a friction between the soul and the outer world. And above all, let they believe in themselves and become helpless as children, because weakness is great and strength is worthless..."

Yeah definitely, even if you look at Andrei Rublev with its obvious Christian setting its really not very dogmatic either, someone who I think was prepaired to look beyond his background into general spirituality.
 
Ok, I'm going to start by saying something that I've said more times on here over the years than I could possibly count: Andrei Tarkovsky was born 50 years too late. He really should've come up during the silent era (and I'm not just saying that to prime us for @Yotsuya's silent week next week :D). His visual sensibilities, his compositions and his camera movements, would've been right at home in the 20s alongside the sweeping camera of Murnau and the strict compositions of Lang, and honestly he probably would've been able to blow their shit off the screen. In the sound era, however, he tries to go beyond being a visual artist to being a poet-cum-philosopher and he sucks at it. Like, really sucks. It's unbearable listening to his idiot philosophy dialogue. He's at his best, and his films are at their best, when there's no dialogue and it's all about the visuals, about the sound, and about the general mood.

Now, having said that, for this week, super nerd that I am, I couldn't just pop in Stalker. I haven't seen any Tarkovsky movies in almost ten years, so I needed to at least refresh my memory on his prior sci-fi effort. I had to rewatch Solaris first, and man, what a surprise that was: That movie's pretty terrible. Back in the day, I used to think that that and Ivan's Childhood were his best films, but Jesus, Solaris is not very good at all. Stalker, on the other hand, has continued to grow in my esteem. I have both Ivan's Childhood and Andrei Rublev with me and I plan on rewatching those over the weekend, so I can't say what my current Tarkovsky rankings look like, but between Solaris and Stalker, that shit ain't even close.

Obviously, there are tremendous similarities between the two films, not least because they're from the same filmmaker in the same genre from the same decade. But the differences are the keys to Stalker's superiority. First and foremost, I believe the characters. The characters in Solaris were laughably cartoonish save for Kelvin, who was just a jackass who, due to the weak script and the worse acting, didn't manage to produce a single genuine moment in three hours, and Hari, who wasn't anything to write home about. In Stalker, on the other hand, the trio Stalker, Writer, and Professor is great. As I said, Tarkovsky's a terrible poet/philosopher, so some of Writer's lines had me cringing, but psychologically-speaking, I get and buy that character. Same for Professor. And Stalker is probably Tarkovsky's best single character, even better than Ivan (at least from memory; we'll see what the weekend brings).

If you went through Tarkovsky's whole filmography, you'd be able to trace a theme that you could label nihilism but that I think would be more accurately labeled despair. I don't remember the horrendously boring Andrei Rublev, so I don't know if/how that one fits, but Ivan's Childhood, Solaris, and Stalker all seem to feature reflections - from the characters within the films and from Tarkovsky with the films - on (a) the unnoticed presence of beauty even in the midst of sadness/horror (the ending of Ivan's Childhood is one of the GOAT endings and as tragic as it is beautiful, Solaris has some tender moments despite its general fucked up-ness, and Stalker is essentially about finding beauty and serenity amidst sadness and devastation) and (b) the loss of hope because beauty is so rarely noticed. Stalker is the zenith as far as this theme goes, and Stalker's breakdown near the end is one of the few genuinely moving pieces of dialogue in a Tarkovsky film.

Having said all of that, the film definitely didn't need to be north of 2.5 hours. Tarkovsky could've easily done what he did in 90 minutes. And probably should've. In a way, the languid pacing let's you off the emotional hook, so to speak. Writer will say something telling, or Stalker will tap into something profound...and then there'll be a four-minute tracking shot that's not just superfluous but actually counterproductive. We get it, Andrei. Slowness is your thing. But come on. Kubrick loved zooms, but not every shot is a fucking zoom. Scorsese loves slow-motion, but not every shot is in fucking slow-motion. Tarkovsky does the slow thing, I get it, but not everything has to be so glacially slow. And Stalker in particular didn't lend itself to that kind of pacing. Stalker has a trance-like atmosphere and there's a sense at key moments of almost gliding or floating like a spirit through the Zone. That's what Tarkovsky should've zeroed-in on and amplified. Instead, he'd often snuff that out with boredom-inducing nothing shots and kill the mood.

Still, though, I've come to really appreciate Stalker on the whole. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination - Tarkovsky doesn't have a single masterpiece to his credit, hence my claim that he's massively overrated; the man is nowhere near the league that the Kubricks, the Hitchcocks, and the Bergmans were playing in - but it's a damn good movie and I'm glad I got the chance to rewatch it.

@Cubo de Sangre and @Tufts, it's taken me ten years and three viewings to come around the way that I have on Stalker. Obviously, you're not compelled to give it another shot down the road, but I'd recommend it as a viewing experiment if not as a genuine investment in Tarkovsky's work.

So, the Russian Woody Harrelson, the Russian Robert Duval, and The Russian Ian McKellan (ok, that's a stretch), walk into a bar...
"Let's make a film about nothing!".
"Nothing??"

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Stalker is a beautiful film that is difficult to intellectualize, I think because it rarely attempts to explain itself.

Normally, that shit pisses me off. It even kind of pissed me off in Solaris, which I felt was seriously lacking in imagination/inspiration. But in Stalker the mystery angle is integrated well with the hope/faith angle.

The sounds add an even higher dimension of hypnotic, trance inducing beauty.

More than the ambient noise, I love the theme song entitled "Meditation."



I'd be comfortable labeling it a masterpiece.

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I think it could be interesting to discuss motivations for going to the Room, and ultimate decisions not to enter.

That doesn't require much intellectual stretching I don't think. They get at it pretty explicitly with the whole "innermost" conversation. Plus, there's this crock from Writer:

"How would I know the right word for what I want? How would I know that actually I don't want what I want? Or that I actually don't want what I don't want? They are elusive things: the moment we name them, their meaning disappears, melts, dissolves like a jellyfish in the sun. My conscience wants vegetarianism to win over the world. And my subconscious is yearning for a piece of juicy meat. But what do I want?"

This type of bullshit ("nothing means anything," or "we can't know anything," or whatever) is motivated by fear, and it's the worst kind of fear: The fear of knowing yourself. "Know thyself" isn't just self-help drivel. It's the ultimate moral imperative. It's also the scariest thing imaginable for some people. In his book The Undiscovered Self, Jung wrote that, in his estimation, "the devaluation of the psyche and other resistances to psychological enlightenment are based in large measure on fear - on panic fear of the discoveries that might be made in the realm of the unconscious." That's what we're dealing with in Stalker IMO. Hope requires a certain kind of bravery, a willingness to move forward and go for something. Fear and hope are mutually exclusive. In Writer's case, he's a man consumed with fear, so of course he's the most hopeless.

Professor wasn't as fleshed out (a weakness in Tarkovsky's script IMO), so it's not as clear-cut, but it's still evident based on his just going along with Writer and not entering the room that he let his fear - maybe fear that he's not as good/righteous a person as he thought he was, showing up with that bomb to "protect" everybody - make the call.

Stalker, then, is the one who, to use a colloquialism, you could say had "a healthy fear" of the Zone, but, more accurately, Stalker knew the Zone, he had faith in his ability to navigate the Zone, and so he had no reason to be afraid. However, by film's end, at which point he'd fallen into despair, he'd become fearful, doubting that the Room would work for his wife. Where's his faith regarding the person with whom he should be the closest and therefore about whom he should have the least doubt? He preached the value of weakness, but it's because he's weak and afraid - and fear is obviously a variety of weakness - that he's in despair.

Not to mention the meaning of Monkey.

That last scene pisses me off. I don't like random nonsense like that which is the definition of inexplicable.

Personally, I'd say its in contention for most beautiful film of all time. I mean, they painted the freaking trees and the leafs to get just the kind of atmosphere Tarkovsky wanted.

That's nothing compared to Kubrick having BNCs fitted with NASA lenses - in short, creating his own personal supercamera - so that he could shoot Barry Lyndon by candlelight :eek::eek:

I think the most obvious and concrete theme in it is Nuclear Fallout.

I definitely get this vibe, too, but I wouldn't say that it's a theme. It's more like the inspiration or the impetus. Tarkovsky pretty clearly goes beyond anything man-made/Earthly, including anything nuclear.

When critics use the word "meditation", its just some bullshit synonym for artsy that is meant to sound deep and impressive 95% of the times.

Stalker is one of the few films you can call meditative. Other non-Tarkovsky examples? Hmm... Dead Man I suppose?

Dead Man is a good call. And, as Tarkovsky had in Stalker, Jarmusch had a recurring piece of music to get you and keep you in the mood.



For other non-Tarkovsky examples of meditative films - all of which also have exquisite music, which is something of a prerequisite for hitting that meditative level - I'd nominate 2001 (duh), Once Upon a Time in America (more dreamlike than meditative on the whole but in parts it's definitely meditative), and Werckmeister Harmonies.

The real world is dull, opressive and bleary -- the Zone is colorful, magical and intoxicatingly vibrant. Its basically a holy, spiritual realm. As I mentioned, man-made matter seems to break down in it, contrasting with the spiritual lush eternal nature (Tarkovsky seemed to hold nature at almost a religious awe). That scene where Stalker lies down in the grass and just basks in the earthiness of the Zone is such a magnificent statement on just how much he is at home in it.[

Notice that when they're outside The Zone. Whenever his daughter is framed alone, the image is in color instead of tinted brown. Symbolizing how she has something of the spiritual magic of the Zone within her.

Hmm. It's interesting that you're kind of going Zone-to-characters whereas I'd go characters-to-Zone. In other words, whereas you say that Stalker's daughter "has something of the spiritual magic of the Zone within her," I'd want to say that she and her father have something of the spiritual magic within them that is necessary to appreciate/get the most out of/what have you the Zone.

Now, that's on the thematic level. On the dramatic level, if the Zone really was the product of a meteor or nuclear fallout and Stalker was genetically altered and produced a genetically altered offspring, then there's a direct (as opposed to thematic/allegorical) link. The fact that that's murky is, IMO, another knock on Tarkovsky's script. But it's interesting enough to think about to where I don't think that it does serious damage.

This is steeped in ancient Christian teaching. The world is metaphysical. We have matter which is base and sinful (non-Zone). And we have a spiritual realm that is home of holiness and higher ideals (Zone).

And, once again, non-believing sinner that I am, I'd want to say something like "the Kingdom of God is within," meaning that it's not the actual, physical place (Eden, Heaven, the Zone, what have you) that's the key but the state of mind/spirit that's the key and that the Zone as a place helps (the way that for some people going to yoga helps) people tap into that.

The conflict of the film between him and Writer/Proffessor is played like a crisis of fate, with others not thinking that human minds are pure enough to take what the Zone is offering them, since mankind is inherently base and sinful (and unknowlagable of its excact self) so the results would only be more evil. Stalker is spiritually destroyed by this, almost appearing as if at the stage of dying. But Stalker did manage to impart some of the Zone on another person. He just didn't notice it. Because it was his daughter.

I'm with you on all of this except the daughter part. Tarkovsky left that shit too WTF to say anything as concrete as this and for anything that happens to be tied to her in any definitive way.

By jove this is the greatest correction of an injustice since Shogun-Machida 2!:D

Chinatown will always suck, but Stalker's not a bad piece of cinema ;)

Going back to stalker though I think you can see a very significant influence from it in Scott's Blade Runner.

Maybe it's just me, but I can hear Rutger Hauer's voice in those lines from Writer that I quoted earlier.

"They are elusive things: the moment we name them, their meaning disappears, melts, dissolves, like a jellyfish in the sun."

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."

Then again, it could just be the presence of similes :D

You could argue I spose perhaps a view of human progress generally highlighting that new discovery's in themselves may not lead to advancement is they don't go hand in hand with moral advancement. Something he'd stated much more obviously in the past with Solaris.

Good point. In Solaris, there's the back-and-forth about how: "Knowledge is only valid when it's based on morality"/"Man is the one who renders science moral or immoral"/"Then don't make science immoral." In Stalker, it's more in the vein of: If the world is our oyster then we need to cultivate our appetites to truly appreciate it.

Stalker believes only the truly unhappy can make it through

Which makes no fucking sense. And that this is nonsensical seems to be confirmed by the fact that neither the wretched Writer nor the wretched Professor enter the Room. It's not because they're not wretched that they don't enter the Room; it's because they're wretched. What's more, it's on this trip that they both seem to come to the realization that they're wretched and how wretched they are.

How that squares with the "logic" of the Zone and/or the Room, I have no idea. But that shit from Stalker about the wretched and the weak and all the rest of it has never made sense to me and seems to be flatly contradicted by the film itself.

In the final scene it seems like maybe Stalker has never seen anyone actually make it through and go inside.

BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL WRETCHED!!!!!!!!!

Stalker tells them that the Zone reacts and changed depending on whose observing it.
We do see the Stalker mention that the zone "wakes up" when people enter it so the idea it was being built partly by the minds of those entraining it could be said it still be hinted at.

I don't think that there's any actual creating going on on the parts of those in the Zone any more than there's any actual creating going on on the parts of the crew orbiting Solaris. Rather, there's a response from the Ocean/the Zone that I analogize in my head to the effect that observation has on particle behavior. Only, in Solaris and Stalker, the Ocean/Zone seem, unlike electrons, to be sentient if not conscious.

I have always wondered at the significance of the nuts

It's always seemed pretty straightforward to me: Since "everything is always changing" in the Zone, going from nut to nut keeps the perceptual field intact and precludes the kind of insane spatial dislocation that Stalker and Writer experience with Professor during the knapsack fiasco.
 
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Having said all of that, the film definitely didn't need to be north of 2.5 hours. Tarkovsky could've easily done what he did in 90 minutes. And probably should've. In a way, the languid pacing let's you off the emotional hook, so to speak. Writer will say something telling, or Stalker will tap into something profound...and then there'll be a four-minute tracking shot that's not just superfluous but actually counterproductive. We get it, Andrei. Slowness is your thing. But come on. Kubrick loved zooms, but not every shot is a fucking zoom. Scorsese loves slow-motion, but not every shot is in fucking slow-motion. Tarkovsky does the slow thing, I get it, but not everything has to be so glacially slow. And Stalker in particular didn't lend itself to that kind of pacing. Stalker has a trance-like atmosphere and there's a sense at key moments of almost gliding or floating like a spirit through the Zone. That's what Tarkovsky should've zeroed-in on and amplified. Instead, he'd often snuff that out with boredom-inducing nothing shots and kill the mood.

I'd say the intension is for the viewing experience itself to mirror the message, personal taste I spose but I do think the visuals are very effective at achieving this, then again I stand around in woodland and fields for hours on end for a living. I think compared to Kubrick you are dealing with very different kinds of compositions, he generally deals in very direct very striking visuals where as Tarkgovsky I would say tends towards more subtle and complex compositions that actually reveal themselves via the slow camera movement.

Which makes no fucking sense. And that this is nonsensical seems to be confirmed by the fact that neither the wretched Writer nor the wretched Professor enter the Room. It's not because they're not wretched that they don't enter the Room; it's because they're wretched. What's more, it's on this trip that they both seem to come to the realization that they're wretched and how wretched they are.

How that squares with the "logic" of the Zone and/or the Room, I have no idea. But that shit from Stalker about the wretched and the weak and all the rest of it has never made sense to me and seems to be flatly contradicted by the film itself.

I think that assumes the Stalker himself is a source of ideal knowledge thoughout the film when really its more about his perspective on the zone being changed. He starts off believing that the Zones ideal purpose is to grant wishes and that in doing so he's making unhappy people happy but moves away from it by the end. As far as why Writer is favoured by the zone(if he is at all) perhaps because he ultimately helps the Stalker understand the true worth of the Zone even if he can't benefit from it himself?
 
I'd say the intension is for the viewing experience itself to mirror the message

Meh. The medium ain't the message. The message is the message. That's why it's called the message.

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Plus...

I think compared to Kubrick you are dealing with very different kinds of compositions, he generally deals in very direct very striking visuals where as Tarkgovsky I would say tends towards more subtle and complex compositions that actually reveal themselves via the slow camera movement.

...the key point for me is that, beyond the visuals on their own, Kubrick's visuals are always directly linked to the narrative that he's weaving. To Tarkovsky, narrative is just an excuse to shoot shit; it's an impediment, an inconvenience, a necessary evil. And it always shows.

I think that assumes the Stalker himself is a source of ideal knowledge

I don't see where that inference is coming from. My point was and is that Stalker was wrong.

As far as why Writer is favoured by the zone(if he is at all)

I never got the sense that anyone was favored by the Zone. What do you have in mind with that? What's the argument for Writer (or anyone else) being favored by the Zone?
 
Meh. The medium ain't the message. The message is the message. That's why it's called the message.

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Plus...



...the key point for me is that, beyond the visuals on their own, Kubrick's visuals are always directly linked to the narrative that he's weaving. To Tarkovsky, narrative is just an excuse to shoot shit; it's an impediment, an inconvenience, a necessary evil. And it always shows.

Kubrick obviously does work strongly by tone but I'd agree this is a clear difference between them and I can definitely see someone preffering one directors work far more than the other. I would say though that Tarkovsky's message really does need to be in the medium, delivered directly in an intellectual fashion it would obviously lack much of its weight.
I don't see where that inference is coming from. My point was and is that Stalker was wrong.

I never got the sense that anyone was favored by the Zone. What do you have in mind with that? What's the argument for Writer (or anyone else) being favored by the Zone?

The point was that the zone letting unhappy people though is a point that comes from the Stalker yet I think we see this view challenged as the film progresses to the degree he probably wouldn't agree with it by the end.

Again the Stalker does clearly think Writer is favoured after he's not killed wandering off towards the house and he admits faking the drawing of lots to have him lead though the tunnel due to this. Whether he actually is or not is I'd agree definitely questionable.
 
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This thread is as dead as a doornail, Smalls. SMC, where you at?

<209Bitch>

<{vega}>

@europe1, until you get reconnected to the Internet, I think the SMC is throwing in the towel on Tarkovsky.

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Been getting absolutely rinsed to celebrate submitting my dissertation recently, and then I have been moving house. I came in here to give my thoughts, but Bullitt's posts have frightened me, not least the utter dismissal of Solaris<6>

So, as it's late and I am unable to delve into much detail, I'll wait till tomorrow lol. But I am not surprised that Tarkovsky isn't exactly a movie club favourite haha.
 
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